Cutting Red Tape in Health Care: How Streamlining Billing Can Reduce California's Health Care Costs

Examines inefficiencies in the state's administrative systems and proposes streamlining key processes and integrating health information networks to cut costs and add value. Offers case profiles of networks in Utah and New England as best practices

A stochastic Fokker-Planck equation and double probabilistic representation for the stochastic porous media type equation

The purpose of the present paper consists in proposing and discussing a double probabilistic representation for a porous media equation in the whole space perturbed by a multiplicative colored noise. For almost all random realizations $\omega$, one associates a stochastic differential equation in law with random coefficients, driven by an independent Brownian motion. The key ingredient is a uniqueness lemma for a linear SPDE of Fokker-Planck type with measurable bounded (possibly degenerated) random coefficients

The stochastic porous media equation in Rd\R^d

Existence and uniqueness of solutions to the stochastic porous media equation dX-\D\psi(X) dt=XdW in \rr^d are studied. Here, $W$ is a Wiener process, $\psi$ is a maximal monotone graph in \rr\times\rr such that $\psi(r)\le C|r|^m$, \ff r\in\rr, $W$ is a coloured Wiener process. In this general case the dimension is restricted to $d\ge 3$, the main reason being the absence of a convenient multiplier result in the space \calh=\{\varphi\in\mathcal{S}'(\rr^d);\ |\xi|(\calf\varphi)(\xi)\in L^2(\rr^d)\}, for $d\le2$. When $\psi$ is Lipschitz, the well-posedness, however, holds for all dimensions on the classical Sobolev space H^{-1}(\rr^d). If $\psi(r)r\ge\rho|r|^{m+1}$ and $m=\frac{d-2}{d+2}$, we prove the finite time extinction with strictly positive probability

Modular properties of two-loop maximal supergravity and connections with string theory

The low-momentum expansion of the two-loop four-graviton scattering amplitude in eleven-dimensional supergravity compactified on a circle and a two-torus is considered up to terms of order S^6R^4 (where S is a Mandelstam invariant and R is the linearized Weyl curvature). In the case of the toroidal compactification the coefficient of each term in the low energy expansion is generically a sum of a number of SL(2,Z)-invariant functions of the complex structure of the torus. Each such function satisfies a separate Poisson equation on moduli space with particular source terms that are bilinear in coefficients of lower order terms, consistent with qualitative arguments based on supersymmetry. Comparison is made with the low-energy expansion of type II string theories in ten and nine dimensions. Although the detailed behaviour of the string amplitude is not generally expected to be reproduced by supergravity perturbation theory to all orders, for the terms considered here we find agreement with direct results from string perturbation theory. These results point to a fascinating pattern of interrelated Poisson equations for the IIB coefficients at higher orders in the momentum expansion which may have a significance beyond the particular methods by which they were motivated.Comment: 79 pages, 4 figures. Latex format. v2: Small corrections made, version to appear in JHE

Deregulation and environmental differentiation in the electric utility industry.

This paper analyzes how economic deregulation impacts firm strategies and environmental quality in the electric utility industry. We find evidence that the deregulation introduced to this historically staid industry has stimulated environmental differentiation. Differentiation is most likely to appear where its point of uniqueness is valued by customers, and we confirm this relationship in our sample. Specifically, utilities that served customers who exhibited higher levels of environmental sensitivity generated more green power. The tendency for firms to differentiate in this way is lessened if they are relatively more dependent on coal-fired generation or relatively more efficient. Thus, there is evidence that firms sort themselves into either differentiation or low-cost strategies as the competitive realities of a deregulated world unfold. Deregulation and the ensuing environmental differentiation illustrate how utilities exploited formerly unmet customer demand for green power. The result has been greater levels of renewable generation and, hence, a cleaner environment.Deregulation; Environmental differentiation; Electric utility; Renewable energy; Productive efficiency;

The Roles of Absorption in Music Therapy

Absorption refers to the phenomenon of total attentional engagement. The purpose of the current study was to gain a preliminary understanding of the roles that absorption may have in different music therapy approaches. The research questions were: a) How might music therapists know when their clients are in states of absorption?, b) How might absorption influence the ability of music therapy clients to progress towards therapeutic goals?, and c) What is the potential relationship between absorption and music? Three music therapists with self-identified expertise and experience in conceptualizing absorption in music therapy were interviewed about their observations and opinions of absorption in their music therapy practices. Analysis of the interview data revealed the following themes: 1. how music therapy experiences facilitate absorption for clients, 2. how absorption influences music therapy clients, and 3. transitioning to new experiential states. The results suggest that music therapists may facilitate states of absorption in clients by matching music to their kinesthetic and emotional experiences. Absorption states may help clients to access resources and to transition to new experiential state